20. Bielefeld (C.F.) On the Use of the improved Papier Mâché in Furniture, A New Edition, engraved frontispiece, wood-engraved title-vignette, 128 engraved or lithographed plates numbered 15-142, 9pp. price list at end (only listing items from plates 15 onwards so apparently complete), frontispiece a little foxed, otherwise very clean, Georgian Group booklet on papier mache loosely inserted, original blind-stamped cloth, rubbed, spine a little faded, boards very slightly damp-stained, 4to, 1850.
est. £200 – £300
Fascinating trade catalogue featuring c.1100 items of papier-mâché for interior decoration in classical, renaissance, jacobean and particularly gothic styles. Bielefeld invented and patented the process in the early 1840s as an alternative to ornaments of costly, heavy and fragile plaster or stucco. His first catalogue appeared in c.1840 but this later version is much enlarged and includes a price list. An enclosed bookseller’s catalogue entry lists this item lacking plate 24 and suggests that it was never issued as it is also missing from the copy in the Patent Office Library. Sir Howard’s copy, however, includes plate 24 “Ceiling No.803”.